Under the skies
by Rodlox
Summary: AU. SamLorne. Dedicated to Budong Chow. Chapter 1 is an intro, a prologue. Chapter 2 is the actual ship, taking place several months or a year after chapter 1.
1. Chapter 1

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**WARNING:everything I know about Senate hearings, I got from a few minutes of C-Span during stargate commercials.**

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**Location:Washington, DC**

**The recent past**

_Its times like this,_ Sam Carter thought to herself, _I almost wish Kinsey was here._ God knew it would've made this a lot easier for the vast majority of the men and women of the Stargate Program. _But he's not here, and we have to answer questions from his replacement, and from NASA to boot._ "Yes sir," she said into the microphone, "I am aware that the recent shuttle mission was launched – and returned – without any problems." This Senate hearing was closed to the public. Officially, it wasn't taking place; unofficially, the current hearings on the quality of troop equipment provided a perfect opportunity for the Senate panel to convene and hold this inquest without the press suspecting a thing. Even with it closed to the public, Sam wondered if the men and women posing the questions were posing for the cameras recording this hearing for posterity – or if these sort of questions had become ingrained in them by now.

"If you know that to be so," asked Dr. Mach, glancing at his copy of her pre-hearing statement, "why are you claiming that this Anubis is restricting travel to and from Earth?"

_At least Kinsey understood just what the Goa'uld were capable of. _"Because that is exactly what he is doing. For the past month, we have been unable to use the stargate to travel to any other world." _Do I tell them about the edge of our solar system?_

Before she could decide on that, Senator Harris asked, "He turned off our stargate?"

_I almost wish it were that simple. If it were, I might be able to solve the problem. _"He did not, Madam Senator. What he did was to –" funnel? Warp? "the space around us so that, every time we tried to use the stargate to go somewhere, we ended up in his throne room. Whether we say nothing once we arrive there, or if we refuse to bow to him, we find ourselves back in the SGC."

"So bow to him," Senator Riley said, "and get back to finding a way to get rid of him."

Sam opened her mouth, but Senator Tretyakov stated the obvious first: "Bowing means something, Walt."

Shutting her mouth, Sam nodded. "When he initially isolated us, Anubis told us and our allies that their fate – that of our allies," clarifying just in case it was unclear to anyone, "rested upon what we Tauri decided. He said he'd hold off any action until we made up our mind."

"If he's so all-powerful," Mach asked, "what's keeping him from breaking his word?"

"As strong as Anubis is, he's still bound by his own habits as well as instincts and convention. The Goa'uld have always considered themselves to be gods, and they act like it – including how, when they sign treaties, their word is their bond."

"In other words, we have to take it on trust that, as long as we stay undecided, he'll keep his word?"

"That's a fair summary, sir."

"And what if any of our allies out there take action against this Goa'uld?" Riley asked.

"We're bugs, Walt," Harris said, sounding to Sam's ear more like the lady senator from Idaho was joking with a friend, than discussing the fate of the world. "He'd just swat them."

"You mentioned, Lt. Colonel," Tretyakov said, "that Anubis did something to the space around us. If its possible, could you be a little more specific?"

_Oh God._ "Sir?"

"Exactly how much space do we have around the Earth now? How far can mankind expand before we run into him?"

"We have to the outer edge of our Oort Cloud, Senator," Sam said. Steeling herself for any possible reaction…

And there was none.

_Of course_, she thought darkly_. The Oort is huge, and with NASA's present technologies, it'll take twelve years to reach Jupiter – assuming they launch today._

"So what's the problem?" Riley asked. "Even you can't have a problem with that, Bill," he said to Senator Harris, who was a key supporter for a mission to Mars within the next decade.

"I don't have a problem with this chap sitting on our doorstep," Harris replied. "What I have a problem with is the thought he might decide to move the doorstep closer to Earth. What exactly is there –" stopped and turned his attention back to Sam, "What exactly is there to keep this Anubis from coming back here?"

_I take it he's not counting the cargo ships shuttling between Antarctica and the Oort. _"The truth, sir?"

"Have you been less than truthful with this panel, Lt. Colonel?"

"No sir."

"Then please continue in that vein."

"Understood, sir. Unless we pull a minor miracle, we currently have nothing that can keep Anubis from returning,"_ in force, _"to Earth."

"So, no change?" Mach asked. Sam was relieved that the man didn't sound smug – as much as NASA was looked down upon by the SGC, the past month could be considered comeuppance…or balance._ Or something._

Everyone had been sitting and waiting, in the wake of the Battle Over Antarctica. The defeat of Earth's forces had come as no surprise to those in the know who thought that, maybe, just maybe, after all this time, the SGC had butted heads with something a little too big for them to knock over.

And yet, having won the battle, Anubis turned on all the things he'd switched off, and left Earth alone…the Base in Antarctica excepted, of course._ Please don't ask me why he's not here. Please ask me something else, anything else._

But no, they asked exactly that. "I'm afraid," Sam said, "that I can't answer that."

"Can't or won't?" Riley wanted to know.

"I can't." A lie – one that'd get her discharged from the military if anyone found out she'd lied.

_I told them about conventions and instincts. _She hadn't mentioned that even the Ascended Ones – Anubis included – were bound by strict laws that seemed to be written into the fabric of the universe. Rule number one seemed to be_ **worlds where life arises, are inviolate and may not be tampered with**. _Any terraformed world, any place life had been imported to, on the other hand, was fair game. Anubis could roast Chulak if he wanted to – but not Earth.

_Hence the isolation. A god can afford to wait._

"One question, Lt. Colonel," said Senator Bridgeman, who'd been silent through the hearing up til now. "Would you say it's an accurate statement that Anubis controls the interior of Antarctica?"

"Yes sir," Sam nodded, "I would say that that's very accurate." _We're damn lucky he doesn't try to take the coast._

"And would you also say that its accurate that, owing to our refusal to say anything to him, Anubis has not offered to return any of the men and women he captured during the Battle?"

"Yes sir, I would." (While she herself doubted Anubis would allow the captured shipfulls of combatants to remain dead and dying, Sam suspected he wasn't letting them be idle either.)

"Thank you. That is all, Lt. Colonel."

Looking up and down the panel, Senator Harris then said, "In that case, we're done with you, Lt. Colonel Carter…at least for now." To her fellow panelists, "We'll recess for lunch, and then we can talk to Doctor Weir."

Sam wished her boss luck.


	2. Chapter 2

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**Thanks to Rolleson for helping me with this.**

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**Part two:**

**SAM'S POV:**

**A year later:**

The sun this week is more of a burnished color than last month's haze-shrouded orange.

Lorne's down in the lowlands at the moment, one of several who volunteered to carve a short message in the stone down there. I'm here sitting on watch, eyes alert for any threats. Not that I expect any, not on this windward edge of our spiral galaxy, one face to the open spaces of intergalactic space.

**Carving** – our way of pronouncing - **_we are still here_**. A bit old-fashioned, but there was something to be said for the method – it, at least, would last for millennia, whether any of them did or not.

It was one of the easier ways of standing up to Anubis – and "easy" was never a more relative word than it was these days.

Earth existed, out there, amidst the many stars. It was safe…last time they checked, at least. Anubis had made it very simple, spelling it all out: **_to prove that you wish peace and to be left alone, banish your stargate workers; I grant them passage to another world_**. And under a gun, those nations who knew of the stargate, did exactly that – sending not just the exploration teams, but also the technicians and other support personnel. There had been no other options, not even for the once-mighty SG-1…a fact which rankled deep within us for a long time. _Evan helped pull me out of my rankling._

One strongly suspected Anubis was a cat in want of mice to play with_. Thus we play the part of the mice, _I tell myself, _to keep him too busy to bother with Earth._

The carvers headed up the slope, towards our community. One of them in particular, towards me. Evan Lorne knows me. He **_knows_** me. Every day, we learn a little bit more about one another. And we're still together.

We kept hush about _us_ when we'd found ourselves in that other SGC – we were the only ones there not from the same SG team. Even so, the other ones of me – the many Samantha Carters – told me they knew what I was feeling. A couple of them envied me. And they all confirmed for me a hunch I've had for a while.

The candle that burns brightest, burns briefest. My most intense relationships never last very long – doesn't matter what timeline I'm in. It didn't matter which other me I spoke to – be she one who'd been involved with Martouf, Jack, Narim, Walter, Ba'al, either Jonas, Teal'c, or Yu – my interest always fizzled and problems arose. Eventually the mystique wears off, and my eye wanders – exactly what happens when I say "this is more advanced than anything we've ever come across" time and time again.

Most of the other Sams came from timelines where the Ori are the big threat. The big bad. Lucky them, that their Anubis' never succeeded in his quest. Jack and Vala are our ambassadors to the Ori, who are just as threatened as we are.

We live every day under other suns. Sol Yellow is fast becoming a distant memory. And we're okay with that. Evan Lorne and I, Samantha Carter, are happy together. We're not dazzling, but it's the quiet dim stars that last forever.

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The End


End file.
